Who are the highest paid African footballers in the world?

Liverpool are building a team of highly-paid, highly-skilled African players. We're all for it...

Liverpool's Egyptian midfielder Mohamed Salah (R) celebrates after scoring with Liverpool's Senegalese midfielder Sadio Mane during the English Premier League football match between West Ham United and Liverpool at The London Stadium, in east London on November 4, 2017.

We’re telling you now, this list of the highest paid African footballers will throw you a few curveballs. So it may be wise to start expecting the unexpected.

Highest earning African soccer players

We’ve condensed our list into a handy top 20. Liverpool fans will be pleased to know they have a monopoly on well-paid African talent, claiming four players on the countdown. In total, 13 of the 20 stars mentioned ply their trade in the EPL.

Unfortunately, there are no South African players in sight. But you can treat yourself to our list of the highest earning ABSA PSL footballers here. Our advice for the pros? If the English Premier League won’t have you, get on the next flight to China…

18. Ahmed Musa

Honorouble mention:

19. Naby Keita

RB Leipzig’s commanding defensive midfielder was snapped-up by Liverpool in the last transfer window, but the African Footballer of the Year nominee won’t actually join the reds until next season.

When the Guinean does make his way to Anfield, he’ll be earning between $133,000 – $266,000 a week. That’s a maximum intake of R3.6 million every seven days. Wow.

Dishonourable mention:

20. Asamoah Gyan

Less than 12 months ago, he was raking in $301,000 a week – more than R4 million. He would have been second in the list of highest paid African footballers. Now, Gyan has always been a money-chaser, but 2017 was the year that he could no longer justify his gargantuan wages.

A public falling out with his former club Shanghai Shenhua saw him farmed out on loan to Dubai’s Al-Ahli, and then sent packing to Turkish mid-table dwellers Kayserispor. He now makes a yearly salary of $669,000, at $12,000-a-week. And this is what Asamoah is calling a tough time, eh?